Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Hello everyone! Sorry for the long delay, but things have been pretty crazy with work, traveling and then also buying a fucking house! ME AND SARA BOUGHT A FUCKING HOUSE! :)

Sorry for that, now on to the good stuff! I ate so many good things in India, I really love the cuisine. Such rich, creamy flavors that use the most amazing blends of spices you can think off. And then the breads, naan, roti, chapati, parotta, paratha, papadum and so on... YUMMY!

And such fun vegetarian food, while vegetarian foods here can be a bit one-sided, here its very diverse and fun to try!

I didn't even miss not eating pork or beef!

So here is a small "list" of some of my favorite things I ate, just a small taste of the best and the worst.. Because not all things where delicious!

Biryani

Chicken Biryani, a rice dish from the south of India (Jaipur is in the north/middle of India). Was really tasty, though a little bit dry, but real nice blend of spices and tasty!

Kachoori

Kachoori, is basically a fried ball of dough with different stuffing, usually chickpeas, spice mix and onions or potatoes, vegetables.. I think always vegetarian, never saw any with meat.

Barfi

Everyday at the hotel we got a plate like this... Damn them! Soft, dark chocolate that was delicious, but the real treat was the middle candy called "Barfi" here with Saffron flavor. Not so sweet and really nice rich saffron flavor! Really loved these guys and ate a lot!

Barbecue Nation

So we also went to a place called "Barbecue Nation" which featured a neat little thing for entrees, they open a hole in the table and put in a box containing hot coals, then they bring over skewers with chicken, mutton, fish and prawns if you ask for none-veg. If you ask for veg you get mushrooms, cheese (Paneer, lovely indian cottage cheese, but firm!), dough filled with different things and roasted pineapple.

While eating this they also bring you fried corn, bread and other things that are not suited for skewers!

This continues until you flip the flag down you have at your table and then the entree is done and the buffet with 15 odd dishes are yours for the taking.. We where pretty full from the starter already...

So we only tasted the mains a bit and then went for dessert!

The dessert table with cakes and stuff:

And Kulfi! A Kulfi buffet! Wonderful Indian ice cream called Kulfi! I need to make this, became obsessed with it down there and ate maybe 10 of em during my 2 week stay...

Here you got to choose different kinds and then what toppings you wanted..

My dessert plate looked like this:

Pretty awesome.. So much saffron flavors!

Victory dinner!

So after our go-live we had a small celebration and here are some pictures from the dinner.

Starting from top left going to the right.

Naan bread with paneer, mutton curry, butter naan and chicken tikka.

So much flavor and such fluffy tasty bread to scoop up all that lovely gravy with... This I could live on forever!

Typical regional indian dessert called Rasmalai.

Not so sweet and really good taste of Saffron, another favorite dessert!

We also got cake at the factory. Nothing special just thought it was pretty!

Fun that it was cream cake and everyone dove in with their hands... Dirty hands...

Lassi!

Traditional creamy yoghurt drink from India, I never really liked it when having it in Sweden... Just didnt do it for me. But they had what they called the "Original Lassiwala" so I had to give it a try, cost me about 50 cents (3kr) and was amazing! Really creamy and rich. (Also got to keep the cup.. hahaha)

Eating in the taxi... Yummy!

Curry after movie!

So this was one of the best curries I had, it was chicken and spinach curry. (Also containing the usual curry spices/flavors. Cardammom, garlic, ginger, chili, cinnamon, koriander and so on).
Was really rich, not spicy at all but still so so good. Even Venky that was with me said it was one of the best he's had. And the bread was perfect, Naan with garlic and butter. Perfect for scooping the rich gravy up and eating until you drop!

Dunkin Donuts.. I just had to... So good!

Work food!

So everyday we got dinner at the office, same setup each day.

Roti bread

Banana

Some vegetable, carrot, onions..

Rice with spices, here with Tikka Masala

1 vegetarian stew, here made with paneer cheese (Tasty!)

Raita (Yoghurt/Curd sauce quite mild)

And 1 dal (Lentil) stew.

Same setup ever day just different flavors on the stews and rice, but got quite boring after a while. First days it was really good, but then when you realized how awesome the food was elsewhere this became a let down. :)

Gulab Jamun

So this is a favorite among the Indians... I can't understand why, its basically fried dough balls that are soaked in syrup with rose water taste. And they taste.. sugar, I mean pure sugar!

They are served like this:

And I took one ball without syrup but as soon as I tried to cut it you see what happened.. Syrup just pours out.. Not so tasty..

Petha

So I went to Taj Mahal, and got ordered to buy this. Apparantly the Agra area is famous for these sweets. Basically pure sugar and tastes of sugar..

Here we have Saffron flavored (most said it tasted of soap, I agree)

and Coconut and Saffron flavor, these actually tasted of Coconut but still to sweet to eat more than 1/5 of a piece and no more...

Another Curry!

As I mentioned a lot of the food was veg, and some restaurants were veg only. In the second hotel they had some dishes on the menu that sounded really yummy that were veg. So after some deliberation with myself I decided to pick this veg meal. It was a cashew paste curry with doughballs stuffed with saffron, cheese, nuts and raisins.

The sauce was so creamy and delicious, you could really taste the cashew that gave the dish a real fullness while the dough balls where airy, soft and a real good complement to the sauce. Also the naan was really good, not the best I had but still better than anything you find in Sweden.. Really airy and easy to pull apart and not burnt.

Chokhi Dhani

We went to a resort called chokhi dhani, basically a big hotel and next to it a "resort" or amusement park kind of thing... A big area built as a village from the country side. Were they show how to make up fire, how they dance, play games, gather water, make handicrafts and much much more. I got to ride a camel and a elephant here, lots of fun!

When entering you could decide what kind of dinner you wished to have at the park. Like "commoner food", royal buffet, royal Rajasthani Thali etc..

We opted for the Rajasthani Thali, which is basically a big plate with many small bowls with bread on the side. Perfect for a foodie like me, means I get to test a lot of food in a authentic way. All veg, like they usually do it in the country. It was delicious, simpler flavors than I had at restaurants but real clear, good flavors. The lentils we got though was not so good though, the lentil stews tend to have less flavor and be more "soupy" than a gravy, unfortunately...

Last picture of me and Venky eating the Thali... I miss the spices, the food, the people, the weather and everything else... I will have to come back to India one day and do more sightseeing. It has so much to offer! (And so CHEAP!)

Thursday, March 5, 2015

So first off I know I take shit pictures and my lighting and angles are all off..

So I read this guide: http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/03/beginners-guide-to-food-photography.html

Loosely mind you to take some inspiration so I will be trying to get better at it in the near future so bear with me! :)

So now I made Jambalaya! From the deep south!

So first the Cajun spice, I kinda winged it here because I hadn't made it before and the recipes I can find vary so much.. Basically use what you think is tasty, mine came out wonderful but will probably add more cayenne next time, even though I don't know the exact measurements...

But roughly:

3 teaspoons of salt

3 teaspoons of garlic powder

4 teaspoons of smoked paprika

2 teaspoons of fresh ground black pepper

2 teaspoons of onion powder

2 teaspoons of cayenne

2 teaspoons of oregano

2 teaspoons of thyme

1 teaspoon of chili flake

2 bay leaves.

Then you need:

2 Chicken fillets

2 Chorizos or andouille sausages (About 200 grams total)

White rice for 4 people

Water or chicken stock

Some veggies:

Onions, garlic, bell peppers, celery.. Any veggies you like really but these seem to be the "standard"

Also, when it comes to the protein andouille sausage and shrimp seem to be quite common as well or beef or pork... So many varieties!

But now, let's get cookin'!

First cook your chicken (preferably with your sausage to get that flavor going) I also dusted my chicken a little with the Cajun seasoning...

Chop up your veggies, I opted for green bell pepper and celery only..

Plopp, chicken and sausage into a pan, add uncooked rice, spices and water/stock to cover. Bring to a boil and then bring the heat down and let it simmer for about 15 minutes under a lid, stirring occasionally.

While it is simmering we can cook the veggies a bit... Throw in some water with the veggies to deglaze the pan from any goodness the sausages and chicken left behind.

Mmmm the smell!

After about 15 minutes, it should look something like this.

Now taste the rice, if its feeling almost cooked and not running dry add the veggies otherwise add some more water and let simmer for some more time.

Veggies added!

Now stir and let sit for another few minutes just to get the flavors through and the rice fully cooked. You have to be the boss here when it is cooked for you! Taste is important!

When done cooking let rest for a few minutes and then serve!

If you do a spicy version off this I think some creme fraiche or sour cream would go wonderful with it!

Will be making this again and again I feel, even though it was a bit to spicy for Sara it tickled me in all the right places.

Only changes I will make next time is frying so yellow onion with the veggies and adding a bit more cayenne I think, really easy recipe and this made 4 portions :)

Will be going to India on Sunday and I don't know how my internet availability will be over there so I might not blog for two weeks.. Or I will blog more! Hopefully lots of good stuff to eat down there that I have never tried before, and hopefully I won't get sick and die from it. hö-hö-hö.. seriously though, bringing so much medicine for my tummy!

So I had to go, I have missed the last two years because of trips colliding with the date but this year I was able to go with Sara.

A real cozy nice Sunday was in store for us and we arrived shortly after opening at 10:30

While there was a lot of people it didn't feel crowded, which was nice but by the time we left at 14:00 the area was starting to fill up a bit more.

So I ate about 1kg of Chocolate, Cheese, Sausages, Ice Cream, Marzipan and different kinds of dried fruits and meat..

I did not take many pictures because of the crowds and I was also quite focused on tasting and listening to the sales people about their different brands and where I could find them after the event and so on.

But to name a few favorites.

Meat the world, had some excellent different kinds of meats you could taste, cooked to perfection.

There were two licorice sellers "Lakritsfabriken" and "Gamla Viborg.

"Bräutigams Marsipan" suuuch good Marzipan

"Lejonet and Björnen" really good tasty Ice Cream.

There were to many to count selling cheese and salami/sausages that I tasted to many of..

And also Chocolate truffles, really like that buttery chocolaty kind.

And all free to taste!

All exhibitioners were also selling most of their stuff at the convention at quite nice prices, and I took a few pictures of some of the ice cream you could buy.

First Mochi Ice Cream. Quite fun and I had never tried it and neither had Sara, apparently Japanese ice paste encasing ice cream...

We went for the flavor: Raspberry with White Chocolate.

Quite interesting taste and texture on the outside, no real hit but well worth trying.

And then another one was selling Gelato, which I am a sucker for...

So had to try theirs, They had a few flavors and we went for 1 scoop.

50% "Semla"

and

50% Dark Chocolate

It was ok, but not of great quality.. Not as creamy and nice as i expect my Gelato to be..

Really wanted to buy more Salamis and meat and tapenades and pesto and cheese but I have so much at home that I am struggling to finish (just aren't enough days to cover my cooking needs!) also we were going to IKEA afterwards so I could not have meat in the car i felt like and I still have not opened half of the sausages I brought from Italy and Slovenija... damnit!

But at least I tasted EVERYTHING (Maybe 3-4 times when they where really good, think Sara was a bit annoyed with me at the end when I kept going back and forth...).